OHL commissioner upbeat about rule changes, Spirit

SAGINAW - Last year, the Ontario Hockey League experienced a record-setting season.

By Chris Marchand

SAGINAW - Last year, the Ontario Hockey League experienced a record-setting season. But the league isn't about to rest on its laurels.

Despite last year's records in attendance, televised games, and wins by a league champion, representatives of all 20 OHL teams are in Saginaw this week for the league's Focus Marketing Meetings.

The two-day event is designed to give teams ideas on increasing revenue and media exposure.

"In this day and age, things are always changing," Branch said. "We always want to be in a position to know where we're headed. In this case here, (we want to find out) what our consumer wants and how we can best serve his or her needs."

Last season, the London Knights won a Canadian Hockey League-record 59 games during the regular season, which culminated in a Memorial Cup title. The league is looking for more excitement in the future.

Among the topics to be addressed at the meetings are media relations, customer service, ticket sales, game day promotions, creating sell-outs, Internet sale of tickets and increasing corporate sponsorship revenue.

Branch also addressed some other hockey topics pertaining to both the OHL and the Saginaw Spirit.

The big issue headed into this season was how the numerous rule changes would affect the game and how the fans would react to them. So far, the changes have worked out well.

"We've been really pleased," Branch said. "Everyone knew that there were going to be growing pains, but we really did a great job of communicating the changes and the reasons behind them through a series of meetings with the owners, general managers, coaches, players and media."

Branch points out that scoring on average is up by two goals per game, and the length of games has dropped by two minutes.

"We know that people don't like change. This is a bit unprecedented, because we've never seen so much change all at once," Branch noted. "But what has really helped is that we're mirroring the National Hockey League, because we're the number one developer of players for the NHL. So we have to provide the conditions that mirror the NHL, so the kids are ready to play in that environment when they go up."

Branch has been the commissioner of the OHL since 1979. Since then, the league has grown from 12 teams to 20. Saginaw is the newest franchise in the OHL. They've been an instant success in terms of popularity and attendance, and they're off to their best start at 7-3-0-0.

"You take great pride in all your teams, but we were so right in putting our trust in (Spirit owner) Dick Garber," Branch said. "He really sold Saginaw to our league. There wasn't a lot of knowledge about this area, and, quite frankly, the things we did know weren't all positive in terms of some of the hockey teams that were here.

"He's built a team here off the ice, and now you're seeing the results of that hard work on the ice. It's all coming together here."

Branch is cautious about expanding the league any time soon.

"We could award five cities franchises because of the interest. Through expansion, you have to make sure you don't dilute your talent pool to the level where it affects the level and quality of play," he said. "We feel comfortable right now where we are in terms of all our franchises (being) healthy in terms of competitiveness."